I Thessalonians 5:23: 23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear Friends in Christ,

In these past three weeks, we have been studying the Biblical concept of shalom, which is the Hebrew word for peace. In week #1we studied peace in ourselves, and we learned that shalom isn’t simply the absence of violence or hatred in our lives, it’s the presence of Christ and all that He brings. In week #2, we studied the matter of peace with others, and we learned once again at the foot of the cross how beautiful life can be when we receive God’s forgiveness and then give it away as fast and as completely and as cheerfully as we can. Last week, we studied peace with creation, and we learned that creation itself is part of the great story of God’s love, that our sins, both personal and collectively have cursed and corrupted that creation in so many ways, and how beautiful it is that in Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection we catch glimpses of paradise already here and now.

Of course glimpses of paradise are a far cry from paradise itself. It’s like getting a little piece of a steak appetizer on a toothpick at Hyvee in anticipation of the full blown t bone steak meal in the comfort of your home. Here and now we have foretastes of peace in ourselves, with one another, and even with creation on our way to a more glorious day where peace is perfected. In today’s sermon, we focus on how grace which has been won fully on the cross will show up in perfect fashion on the Last Day. Specifically, we take a look at the victory we already have over our spiritual enemies - he enemy of our own sinful nature, the enemy of this sinful world, the enemy of Satan himself, the final enemy of death – in anticipation over the final victory yet to come.

An enemy morphs into a (friend) Back in the late 60’s and 70’s, when I played high school football for the Wyndmere Warriors, our nearest and most dreaded enemy was the Lidgerwood Cardinals. We Warriors just didn’t like the Cardinals. We didn’t. Both schools had pretty good football programs, both schools enjoyed modest success, both football teams hit a little harder and stepped it up a notch when playing each other. Our mascot was a fierce native American kind of a mascot, theirs was a bird. A bird. You can imagine how the homecoming floats pictured the mighty warriors destroying the silly birds. Birds.

Fast forward ten short years when I began to hear rumors that the 11 man Warriors team and the 11 man Cardinals team had become one 9 man Wyndmere /Lidgerwood team, and now they would be called the Warbirds. Seriously, the Warbirds. And imagine my surprise when the Warbirds became a North Dakota powerhouse team, getting second place in the great state in 1982, and winning championships in 1987 and again in 1992, and again in 2010. Our worst enemy had morphed into one of our best friends!

As Pastor Muther would say, I tell you all of that to tell you this. So also for Christians who have been baptized and are believing with all of their hearts and souls and minds that Jesus is their Savior an Lord, so also does one of our worst enemies morph into one of our best friends. I speak of course, of death. The Bible speaks of death as the final enemy to be destroyed. Whether death comes in the womb, at age 22 or at age 62 or age 92, it’s ugly. It hurts like nothing else hurts. It makes us cry like nothing else makes us cry. It separates and brings on emptiness like nothing else separates and brings on emptiness. And yet this enemy has also been tamed by our truest and best and almighty friend, Jesus Christ. And if spend time at funerals and burials and funeral lunches for Christians for any length of time, you will hear dozens and even hundreds of friends and family members talking about death as a relief, as a victory, as something that is better already now and in anticipation of a really glorious day yet to come. Three parts to our sermon today.

Already now, there is a Way through our tears, the day is coming when there will be (no more tears!) Listen to anybody whose property was ravaged by flood waters in recent days, and you’ll hear them talking about how hard they cried when the rains came rushing through. You might even see a tear or two rolling down their cheeks. But keep listening, and you’ll hear them talking about how it’s just stuff, they still have life, and underneath it all is a premise that the day is coming when a new heaven and a new earth is coming soon, and in that place, there will be no raging seas, no uncertainty, no mourning nor crying nor worrying, for the former things will have passed away.

Listen to any Christian whose marriage is struggling to survive or whose teenagers are making horrible decisions or whose life circumstances are getting the best of them, and part of you will just want to sit down and cry with them, to just sit down and agree how overwhelming life can be, to just sit down and complain, to just sit down and have a pity party. But keep listening, and in one way or another, sooner or later, you will hear them remember that there is in fact a peace that surpasses human understanding, you will hear them saying that God has his plans and purposes, you will hear them talking about all that is right in their lives, and you may even hear them say that their suffering will produce endurance and that endurance will produce character and that character will produce hope, and this hope will never ever disappoint!

Lesson #1 today, already here and now, Jesus Christ has taken away the power of sin, already here and now He has taken away the guilt of sin, already here and now He has taken away the eternal punishment of sin, the day is coming when sinful nature and this sinful world will no longer be bothering us, much less tormenting us.

Secondly, already now, Satan has been bound with a chain, the day is coming when he will be (thrown into the fire.) It’s impossible to talk about spiritual enemies without thinking about the devil and all of his demons. The Bible says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Here and now, we daily battle, and some days, it seems as though it is a losing battle. But by virtue of our Baptism, by virtue of our faith in Jesus Christ, we have the very armor of God with which to resist.

The Bible speaks of Christ as the stronger man who comes in and binds up the strong man, the devil. In Revelation 20, John writes, “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit, and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent,who is the devil and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

We understand this 1000 year period of time to be symbolical and not literal. The 1000 years refer to the New Testament age that began when Jesus Christ suffered all that needed to be suffered under Pontius Pilate, when he was crucified until he was dead and buried according to the will of God, and when he rose up again on the third day in glorious fashion. This suffering and death and resurrection was a package deal where Jesus drank in full the cup of his Father’s wrath, where he paid in full the debt caused by the sins of all mankind in every generation, where he bound the devil with a chain and limited his power. In these days, he still prowls the earth like a lion, tempting and teasing and torturing all who would let themselves be tempted and teased and tortured. The bad news gets worse when we realize that in the end times, his chain will be lengthened, his influence will be even greater, there will be more and more evidence that he is having his way.

Lesson #2 is this, already here and now, the devil can’t hurt you if you will stay out of his circle of influence. As often as you hear and hold onto and rest in the promises of your God, as often as you cry out for your Savior’s grace to do its work in your circle of family and friends, as often as you eat and drink at your Lord’s Table, that often Jesus Christ will give you a peace that only he can give, that often your sins are washed away and sent away, that often you will be able to tell the devil to get lost, and he will get lost – on his way to that day when he will be tossed into that lake of fire where the Bible says he and his minions will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Already now, the sting of death is bearable, the day is coming when death will be (swallowed up forever!)(Story of working for a beekeeper, Dick Ruby, summer of’72, getting stung often by honey bees, my boss telling me to just scrape the stinger out, don’t be a baby about it, and just keep on working. He reminded me of my dad, who if I was crying about some little trouble in my life, he would say, “quit your crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.”

Which is really another way of saying what the Bible says, “It is through much tribulation that you must enter the kingdom of God.” Which is another way of saying that even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, our Good Shepherd will be with us. Even in our final hours, shalom will be ours – not just an absence of evil, it will be the very presence of our God. (For 37 years now, I have had the privilege of praying with and being encouraged by hundreds of Christians meeting up with their final enemy. Almost without exception, they have done so with the grace of God showing up in their rooms and working a peace and a calmness beautiful to see. Almost without exception, they and their families have been able to just scrape the stinger out, to not be babies about it, and to keep on living. For the most part, they have been still, they have known that God is God, and they have finished their race in strong fashion.

This past week, I read a devotion by former Lutheran Hour Speaker Ken Klaus, where he told about a runner from Tanzania who had been injured in a fall early in his Olympic race. Eventually he limped into the Olympic stadium, hours after the winner of the marathon had received his Olympic gold medal. Later, the runner was asked why he stayed in the race once he had lost it, why he had risked causing injury to his leg. Simple, he said, “They didn’t send me 7,000 miles to start the race. They sent me 7,000 miles (to finish it.)

The kingdom of God is like a large church in a small town full of people intent on running their races well, focused on finishing strong. More and more, they find themselves being sanctified with a wisdom that comes from on high, more and more they are filled with a confidence their God is a faithful God and that he will do all that he says he will do, more and more they are looking forward to that day when a peace they already enjoy will be perfected. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.